The Sanity of the Mind
by becksterRES
Summary: -Wishing-Fire's Murder Mystery Challenge- What does it take for a man to go completely insane? What does it take for someone to catch him? Follow Kairi in her quest to find out how and why a man blew up a seemingly innocent family in such a massive explosion.
1. Insanity

_Welcome to my new story. I hope you enjoy your time reading this from chapter one all the way to chapter thirty. I would like to give a special thanks to _**Wishing-Fire**_ for creating this _**Murder Mystery**_ challenge. If you had read any of my other stories, I have never touched this type of writing before however, better late than never I suppose. _

**Challenge in a Challenge: **_Yes, much like in_ A Princess' Deadly Escape _I have decided to incorporate a challenge for my readers within the challenge I have taken. The challenge is: _

_Every time a new character is introduced, their last, middle, or first names will be names of characters of other books. Example: Terra Potter. If you knew who Mr. Potter was, in your review, you would tell me that Terra's last name was the same as Harry Potter from the Harry Potter Books. Yes, I would like to know both the character and where s/he is from. _

I present to you: chapter one.

_**Insanity**_

Pushed to the brink of insanity. The endless fire, the burning bricks. Pushed to the last bit of hope and love, lust and lost and falling into an endless despair. Pushed past all forms of thinking straight and pushing back all forms of hatred and despair. Pushed to the end of the line, to your breaking point.

Special Agent Kairi Fujioka knew that the person capable of creating such destruction, such devastation would be completely and utterly insane.

The redheaded woman looked around the area, trying to find anything, _anything_ that would tell her about the murderer or the victims.

"Agent Fujioka," Kairi heard a teammate say as he jogged over. She turned to face the approaching blond.

"We found most of the bodies in the debris of, what we believe is, the kitchen," Roxas Lovegood, crime scene analyzer, reported.

"The kitchen?" she asked. "Are you certain? Why would the family be in the kitchen when a bomb of this magnitude?"

"Perhaps they were just that: the victims of a childish game," he guessed. Absently, Kairi nodded, looking at the area again.

There was something eerily familiar about the job done to the place. It was completely destroyed, the whole house burnt to the ground before the firemen even had a chance to enter the scene. The house was alone in the area, a farming house with a lot of land. It was the perfect place to kill someone without anyone knowing but making a show out of it? That was just suicidal in this sort of field. Did the murderer want to be caught?

True, Kairi had never seen anything in this magnitude but the idea was still present. However, the information she traced to this murder was from years ago; back when she was just a little girl. So how could someone, old enough to have done this all that time back yet young enough to be able to do it again without getting caught either time? The bigger question may be: can the person who did it all those years back still be the one who did it just the night before?

"Did you figure out who was in the kitchen?" Kairi finally asked. Roxas looked up and nodded.

"Yes," he replied. "We managed to recover the most of the bones of a 20-year-old woman, a 43-year-old man, a 40-year old woman, and, I am very sad to say, a eight-year-old boy."

"Eight-years-old?" Kairi asked, both disgusted and upset. Setting aside her personal beliefs in the meantime in favor of a working attitude, she continued, "That's a very wide range of ages. Are you certain they are all related?"

"Well, we can't be certain until we've brought them back to the lab and examined them more closely," Roxas replied, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

Kairi nodded and the two walked deeper into the mess, going towards what would have been the kitchen. Kairi looked around at all the burnt items that were once part of a family setting. She felt sad, yes, but under the circumstances, she had to look for evidence and not bother with feeling sad. She had a job to do and she was sure as hell going to do it no matter how far away she had to separate herself from her emotions.

"Axel went ahead to see if he can find where the bomb was set off," Roxas said, pulling Kairi out of her thoughts.

"Good," the redheaded woman replied. "The faster we know where the bomb was and how it was triggered, the better."

Roxas nodded and went off to do his thing as Kairi walked around to examine the area. She looked down at the bodies covered under the burnt area and objects and took note of the skeletons.

"Alright everyone, pack this up and ship it back to the lab!" Kairi shouted out as an order to everyone. After getting the affirming nods she needed, she turned back to the bodies that had their skin and everything else burnt off.

Somehow, Kairi knew this crime wasn't the same as the rest. She was going to have to enlist the help from some more people…Friends of hers.


	2. Wonder

_I have created a plot for this story. Much thanks to the movie_ Love Never Dies _for giving me inspiration to write again. Also, much thanks to _**MonMonCandie**_ for being my first reviewer and an inspiration, I believe that this chapter would have been pushed to be written much further down the road had I not have someone send in a review or done something to let me know someone was reading it. I now know that weekly updates would prove to be better than random, once a month updates. _

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts. This challenge belongs to Wishing-Fire.

Things are not always what they seem.

**_Wonder_**

Walking with a purpose, Kairi swaggered down the road up to a familiar doorway and rang the bell. Moments later, a familiar woman answered with a pleasant smile.

"Kairi, so good to see you again," a pretty blonde greeted, wearing her favorite color: white. "What gives us the pleasure to see you? Is it game night already?"

Unable to keep a serious expression in front of her friend, the redheaded woman smiled slightly as she replied, "I'm afraid not, Naminé. I need to see the boys."

"They're upstairs," Naminé replied without further questioning. Having been a sketch artist for the police and especially for Kairi's team, she could guess what the other woman needed.

"Riku! Sora!" Kairi called, going up the stairs.

"Shhh! Shh!" she heard Riku say. Kairi, with her natural curiosity, stopped and listened.

"We can trust her, can't we?" Sora said. A tumble. It sounded as though Sora had fallen over something.

"You're not in your right mind. What's wrong with you?" Riku hissed.

"NOTHING!" Sora denied much to quickly to be believable.

"What's going on here?" Kairi called, opening the door and walking in. Her pervious assumption was correct; Sora did fall over the table. All the papers that were undoubtedly on top were spread around the brunet all over the floor.

"Nothing," Sora repeated again, much more calmly now.

Kairi looked at Riku. For a brief moment their eyes met, one filled with confusion, one filled with accusations, but both filled with worry. With an understanding nod, Kairi realized that Riku knew no more than she.

The redhead and silveret both moved at the same time to help their friend up. Understanding that now was not a good time to ask questions about what just transpired, Kairi went straight into explaining what she was there for.

"I need your help."

"We're always here for you," Sora said quickly, looking a bit embarrassed at what had happened.

"I suppose it's about the case with the family burnt in the house?" Riku asked, showing Kairi the newspaper article of the case. "Naminé's been keeping me in the real loop," he assured. "I thought you might need our help. It seemed too perfect to be someone else."

Kairi skimmed the article, having read it multiple times before. Once she was satisfied, she looked up and nodded. "As one may assume. But I believe it's an…admirer."

"An admirer of Xehanort?" Sora asked. Kairi and Riku had placed him on the couch to relax in the meantime and he couldn't be anymore grateful. "Why can't it be him?"

"Well," Kairi said, biting her lip as she thought of a good enough reason. "First off Xehanort is too old to do something at this scale." Riku snorted. "Secondly," Kairi continued firmly, not going to be cut off, "Xehanort is dead, Aqua Albarn, a very respectable and highly trustworthy member of my team, checked the body herself. Furthermore, Xehanort rarely goes after random targets."

"So who do you believe it is?" Riku asked, intrigued by her explanation but not yet buying it.

"I'm wondering about who it may be myself," Kairi admitted. "But I'm almost positive Xehanort can be taken out of the equation." Finally realizing how quiet Sora had been (which was very unusual for the man), Kairi turned to him. "What do you think Sora?"

Sora looked up, as if surprised she asked for his input and wishing she hadn't called him out. "W-well," he started, getting up. "I have a hunch I know who it is and where he is." Kairi and Riku shared a look but allowed him to continue. "We should go. Now."

"But it's already dark out," Riku said.

"And I don't have enough time to get the team-" Kairi started but Sora cut her off.

"You won't be needing your team. The three of us can handle it." He smiled at them although it was weary and gave him an old, haggard look. "It'll be like old times."

Again Kairi and Riku shared a look. This time, Riku's was full of distrust and suspicion but Kairi's was one of worry and dismay.

"O-okay," Kairi agreed as she looked back at Sora. Knowing Riku would never allow her to go with someone he didn't trust and knowing he wouldn't really stop her from following the advice of a friend, she decided to put her trust in Sora. And if needed, put her trust in Riku to be stronger.


	3. Laugh

_Chapter Dedicated to Fille des Reves. _

**Disclaimer: I own not the challenge nor KH. **

_Madness begins with a..._

_**Laugh**_

At the entrance of the warehouse, Sora convinced Kairi and Riku to go a different direction from him despite the obvious and many protests. Kairi and Riku continued walking in their direction, wondering why Sora had been acting so strangely. The continued on for a long while, shining their lights on chains and barrels of various things that had been stored in the warehouse although none seemed illegal or dangerous.

"Does this place seem clean to you?" Riku asked in a mumble, flashing his light at a switchboard.

"Sora must've had a reason for bringing us here," Kairi pointed out, pointing her light at yet another set of barrels. "There has to be something to help with this case."

"I'm not even sure if he's working on this case as much as he's working on his own," Riku replied without a real hint of emotion in his voice. However, the comment surprised Kairi.

"He's working on a case?" she asked when she turned to face him more completely. "Why didn't you two say anything?"

"He didn't want you to know," Riku replied quietly.

"So then why—?" Kairi's question was cut off by a loud, piercing shriek that was soon after accompanied by a manically _familiar_ laugh.

Kairi and Riku followed the seemingly never-ending laughter as best as they could. The two drew their weapons, painfully aware of the fact that the screaming died down but the laughter continued.

Down a hallway, the two slowed up to approach the source of the laughter. The light overhead was flickering so they couldn't make out much. The faint stench of blood was enough to give them the idea of what had happened and, not wanting to get maimed by whatever caused the death, Riku flashed the light towards the end of the hall.

There, sitting with his back against the wall and seeming to be asleep, was Sora, hands covered in blood. Kairi held back a gasp and a shudder when they saw the limp Naminé, her beautiful, white dress and blonde hair soaked in her own blood.

Riku moved closer to the two with Kairi right behind him. Kairi noted that Naminé was the only one injured, her internal organs ripped out and her face paralyzed in a shocked, disbelieving expression. Riku leaned over and checked for a pulse from Sora, half hoping he had one but half hoping he didn't.

"Sora?" Kairi said gently.

"Fuck," Riku cursed lightly, a snarl escaping him.

"Is he dead?" Kairi asked, trying to sound professional but the worry leaking into her voice.

"No," Riku replied, looking irritated and annoyed. "He's perfectly fine."

"So why's that a bad thing?" Kairi asked, looking disgruntled.

"Because!" Riku shouted in irritation. "Don't you see! Sora's covered in _her_ blood! If he's not dead, if he's not even hurt, he killed her!"

Kairi was taken aback from this statement. Surely that wasn't the case. Sora wasn't…Sora wasn't a _murder_. He was silly and cute and buttons and rainbows but certainly not a **_murder_**. And for Naminé to be the victim? Surely…surely Riku must be on something.

"Riku, but it's…it's Sora and Naminé! You can't possibly—"

"Kairi, you've spent most of your life as a detective, as a fed," Riku cut in. "Someone somewhere down the line must have told you that you can't let your personal life get involved in your detective work."

Kairi opened her mouth to respond but shut it before a word escaped. After all, Riku was right.

"So what now?" she asked quietly, turning her head away in sadness.

"We do what anyone else would do," Riku responded, moving a bit closer to Kairi. "We're going to have to call the police." The silveret placed a hand on her shoulder and when she didn't move away, embraced her. Having needed the support, Kairi returned the hug, burying her face into his shoulder.

How could've their friend done this. There was still the chance that maybe, maybe he was innocent but the scene was clear: Sora lying unhurt in a mess of Naminé's blood. There just was something that wasn't settling right with Kairi about the whole ordeal. Besides the fact that Sora was her friend and everything, Kairi felt something…off about the whole thing. Yes, Sora was covered in Naminé's blood, yes, there was no one else there to do the crime, and yes, the laughter did sound a lot like Sora's (but in a more…evil sort of way) but why would Sora just lay there with Naminé's dead body on his lap? Surely he didn't _want_ to get discovered. Kairi would have to look into this but as for now, they had to see what will happen to Sora first.


End file.
